Friends Beyond Death
by mrsjaspercullen14
Summary: Bella is an abused and unloved child. Her best friend dies of an overdose. Will Bella ever get over it? Can Bella live without Alice? Will Alice's brother Edward help her? Can romance blossom in such a depressing time? All Human. Canon pairings
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer.**

**I Do not own Twilight or the characters**

**no matter how much I wish I do. Stephanie Meyer does.**

**Friends Beyond Death**

The sky was getting darker and darker as I strolled leisurely down the street. I didn't bother using the sidewalk. I mean, honestly, who would really care except Alice if I got knocked over?

It was 9pm and I still couldn't see any sign of Alice. She had rushed off after school and I had been looking for her since.

I jumped when my mobile phone bleeped with a text message. It was a horrid, brick-like thing that probably not even my grandparents would use if they were alive. Yet another reason for the kids at school to bully me. I pulled it out of my pocket and read:

_Bells. Wer r u?_

_Meet me at da park in 15mins_

_Luv ya._

_xoxo_

_Alice_

What the fuck? She sounded high. Knowing Alice she probably was high. The park was only a few blocks from here and it would be better than going home to _him. _I had lived with my dad since I was eleven. My mom had never wanted me and when she got remarried all she wanted was me out of her house. So she sent me to my _dad_, Charlie.

I would be punished for being home late home. But right now I didn't give a shit. Alice, my best and only friend was the only one who knew the things he did to me. She had wanted me to tell someone but that wasn't happening. Hell, I would take Charlie over social services treating me like a little kid and feeling sorry for me.

Alice could've been popular if she'd wanted to. She had moved here 2 years ago and both her brothers had immediately joined the populars, Rosalie, Tanya, Jasper etc. But she had come up to me and asked if I would be her friend.

* * *

My feet had carried me to the park in the centre of the small town of Forks without my noticing.

"Alice!" I called, looking around.

I spotted the little pixie-like girl sitting by herself by the swings.

"Bella," she said noticing my presence. Alice was a tiny little person with a huge personality. Her black hair was cropped short and flicked out. And she was definitely high.

Alice kind of had a problem. I was the only one that knew about it. She helped me with my problems and I helped her with hers.

She jumped up and pulled me into a huge hug. She jumped around and began gibbering incomprehensible words. I saw the empty heroine bag behind her.

"Holy shit Ally! How much of that stuff did you take?"

As if in response she suddenly collapsed in my arms. Oh crap. What the fuck am I gonna do?

"Ally! Ally! Talk to me!" The tears were beginning to leak now. My whole world came crumbling down around me in the space of 5 seconds. My best and only friend, my sanctuary, my life and soul was dying in my arms.

"Bella." Her voice was faint and barely more than a whisper. "I'm dying."

"What? NO! No you're not. You're gonna be okay, Alice. You have to be." I was sobbing now.

"Tell my parents I love them. Tell them I'm sorry."

"NO! Tell them yourself! You're gonna be okay!" A passerby was looking at us now and I assumed he had already called an ambulance. This couldn't be happening. Not Ally. Not my Ally. As if my life wasn't bad enough. She was the one thing that made it all bearable. I held her in my arms.

Alice reached out and grabbed my hand. Her tiny fingers were frozen and I took my jacket from around my waste and wrapped her in it. Her other hand was gripping tightly the heart-shaped locket around her neck. I remembered the day we had gone to the jeweller's to get them made specially only a few days after Alice had moved to Forks. The chain and locket were silver and engraved on the front were the words, 'Friends beyond death' We had wanted it to be different than those necklaces that're all the same saying Best Friends Forever.

"Bella. I love you."

Her tiny body went limp in my arms. I was left alone. Alone in the park. Alone in school. Alone in the world. Alone.

**A/N**

**Hope you like it. Thanks to everyone who reviewed my 1****st**** fanfic and added me to their favourites. You guys made my day.**


	2. No News Is Good News

**Disclaimer.**

**I Do not own Twilight or the characters**

**no matter how much I wish I do. Stephanie Meyer does.**

**No News Is Good News**

EPOV

I was lying in my room, listening to my iPod. It was after midnight and my sister Alice still wasn't home. My parents, Carlisle and Esme were starting to worry. I wasn't. No news is good news, right? Besides, Alice did this all the time. She always missed curfew so it was nothing new. She was probably just hanging out with Bella Swan.

Bella Swan is Alice's best friend. When we moved here, we could've been friends with anyone because we're kind of rich and popular. But Alice had chosen Bella. I was glad she had.

Before we had moved here, Bella had been a total loner. She hadn't had any friends and wore baggy, ugly clothes. Since befriending Alice, her dress style had improved but she still refused to wear anything that was revealing or tight-fitting.

Bella was hot. She didn't seem to think so though. She was always so self-conscious and nervous. She barely talked to anyone but Alice. I really liked her though. She was really nice and polite.

Bella hates me, I reminded myself. Tanya and Victoria and all the jocks bullied her. Bella didn't even try to defend herself.

The doorbell rang, distracting me from strange thoughts of Bella and myself in a compromising situation.

"I'll get it!" I yelled to thin air.

I stomped down the stairs to open the door. It was probably Alice, having forgotten her key again.

I heard the door open, and glanced up. No one noticed me standing halfway up the staircase. My parents had beaten me to the door, and standing there in the doorway was one of the local policemen.

I barely heard the words that escaped from the policeman's mouth.

"I'm very sorry, ma'am." He sounded so sad and sincere. "You're daughter, Alice was found in the local park about an hour ago. She had taken a heroin overdose. The medics were too late to save her. I'm sorry."

I tuned out the rest of what he said. I didn't hear my mother's sobs and my father comforting her even though his voice broke. Still no one noticed me.

I turned around and raced up the stairs and everyone turned to face my direction.

"Edward!" My mother called after me, but I ignored her.

'My little sister' I thought repeatedly.

I kept running until I reached my room. I flopped down on my bed, just before I fainted, and everything went black.


	3. Interviewed

**Disclaimer.**

**I Do not own Twilight or the characters**

**no matter how much I wish I do. Stephanie Meyer does.**

**Interviewed**

**BPOV**

The last few hours I had passed in a zombie-like trance. I was totally dehydrated now and the tears had stopped flowing 100 miles per hour. All that was left now was the dull numbness of losing my best friend.

I looked around. I was sitting on a chair outside a room that said 'interview room 2'. So I was in the police station. Two police men were arguing in the corner, and by the way they kept gesturing in my direction, it wasn't hard to figure out what they were arguing about. I strained to hear what they were saying.

"If we don't interview her now, we're gonna be here all night!" The first man yelled. He was short and quite pudgy with beady, grey eyes. His hair was grey and balding but he had a thick moustache.

"She's still a minor. If we interview her now, we're only going to get in trouble. We have to wait for a parent figure. Plus, she hardly looks like she's ready to talk about it yet" The other retorted and I instantly felt respect for him. He was medium build and height with blue eyes and brown hair. He looked like he was maybe about mid-forties.

"We called her father and he laughed in our faces!" The fat one cried again.

I tuned them out after that. I didn't want to hear anymore. I didn't want to feel anymore. I just wanted to crawl under a tree and die. I wondered how long it would take them to find my body. Or if there would even be a search party. Would anyone notice I was gone?

"Bella!" Someone cried from behind me. Her voice was so strangled that I couldn't place it at first. I turned in my chair to face Esme, Alice's mother. We both stared at each other for a minute. And then she pulled me into a tight hug. The tears returned and we just sat crying in each other's arms for what felt like hours.

Eventually we broke apart, and for the first time I realized Esme was not alone. Her husband, I forced myself not to think Alice's dad, Carlisle was standing about a foot away from us. He looked like he was in a faraway land. Standing awkwardly on either side of him were Esme's two boys. Emmett and Edward. Emmett wasn't looking at me but watching the two policemen who had just realised the two adults present in the station. He wasn't crying but pain was evident in his eyes. Edward's 2 big green orbs were staring into my boring brown ones. He had obviously been crying.

Even through all the pain I couldn't help but marvel at his beauty. His perfectly sculpted body. His soft bronze hair spiked up with gel. And most of all his eyes. They were like two big green pools you could just drown in. He looked like a Greek god.

I had had a major crush on Edward ever since I met him. Alice was the only one who had known about it and I had made her swear not to tell anyone.

"Excuse me ma'am. I know this time is difficult for you, but we need to interview Isabella. Would you be so kind as to act as her parent figure?" The tall policeman asked, breaking me from my daze.

Esme nodded once, took me by the hand and led me after the policemen into the interview room.

I sat down nervously and waited for the questions.

The nice policeman (I didn't pay attention to their names) noticed my anxiety and said in a comforting way, "Don't worry about anything, just answer the questions as best you can. Okay?"

I nodded and they began. I answered the first few questions easily, name, age, address, etc. But I knew there was much more to come.

"Isabella..." He began.

"Bella," I corrected him.

"Bella, why were you in the park so late at night?"

"Alice," It hurt to say the name but I continued. "Alice text me and asked me to meet her there." I took the ugly brick out of my pocket and showed them the message.

The fat one wrote something down. There was silence for a few minutes while the tall policeman looked like he wanted to say something but didn't know if he should.

Eventually he opened his mouth, and said softly, "Bella, did Alice say anything before she died. Anything you could make sense of?"

I gulped down tears. I had hoped they wouldn't ask me this. I turned to Esme as I turned to pass on her daughter's dying words.

"She wanted me to tell her parents that she was sorry." Esme began sobbing but I put a hand on her shoulder and went on. I didn't want to stop now or I'd never be able to tell her parents the whole message. "She wanted you to know that she loves you."

The two policemen left having got what they wanted and murmuring something like 'We'll give you two a minute.

Esme totally broke down and we just sat there. Me with my arms around her while she wept for her lost daughter in my arms.


	4. Unloved

I Do not own twilight nor the characters

I have to wait to kidnap Stephenie Meyer before I can own them

**Unloved**

"_Alice!" I called, looking around._

_I spotted the little pixie-like girl sitting by herself by the swings._

"_Bella," she said noticing my presence._

_She jumped up and pulled me into a huge hug. She jumped around and began gibbering incomprehensible words. I saw the empty heroine bag behind her._

"_Holy shit Ally! How much of that stuff did you take?"_

"_Ally! Ally! Talk to me!" _

"_Bella." Her voice was faint and barely more than a whisper. "I'm dying." _

"_What? NO! No you're not. You're gonna be okay, Alice. You have to be." _

"_Tell my parents I love them. Tell them I'm sorry."_

"_NO! Tell them yourself! You're gonna be okay!" _

"_Bella. I love you."_

I woke up screaming after having relived the worst day of my life. I was surprised I had managed to sleep at all. I guess my mind had somehow persuaded my body that last night was all a horrible nightmare. I knew better than to hope it was a dream. I glanced at the clock on my bedside table. It was 4.30 in the morning. I groaned.

When I had come in last night, Charlie had been crashed out on the tattered sofa. I was thankful for that but I knew I would have to make up for avoiding him last night.

I was drenched in my own sweat and I was shaking violently. I had hoped that I wouldn't have to go back there in my sub-consciousness. But as usual, I wasn't the lucky one who got to go to la-la land in their calm, peaceful, sleep. Of course I wasn't.

I heard footsteps down the hall outside and knew what was to come. Charlie marched into the room looking angry. I had probably wakened him with my screaming. Well, I would have to pay for that.

Charlie had quite a big build, greying hair, grey eyes and a large, bushy moustache. When he wasn't drunk, he worked at the Newton's camp supply store, which explains why we are practically poor. All the money my mom sends to me, my dad drinks away.

"What the fuck are you doin' screamin' like that at four fucking thirty in the morning!" he yelled at me. I caught a whiff of his putrid breath and nearly gagged. He was definitely still drunk.

"I...I had a bad dream," I told him.

I began shaking even harder scared of what he was going to do to me. You'd think after all the times he did it, it would get better but it never did. I never got less scared. The fear only seemed to increase now that Alice was gone.

He sat down beside me and whispered, "Bella, Bella, Bella. There's nothin' to worry about. You know I'll take care of you. Nobody else wants you. You're fat and you're useless Bella. Just a piece of junk for people to walk over. Nobody loves you." As he said this he started taking off my pyjamas.

"Charlie, please," I sobbed. "I just lost my best friend." I knew it wouldn't make a difference. He was going to rape me anyway. I was fighting a losing battle.

"Call me Dad." He whispered dangerously. Ugh. He was sick. He wanted me to call him Dad while he raped his sixteen year old daughter. I was totally naked now.

Charlie pulled away from me but I knew better than to hope he had changed his mind. Sure enough, when I looked up, he was only stripping off his own clothes. He got back onto the bed and straddled me.

I closed my eyes and prayed for it to be over quickly.

He thrust into me and I couldn't help but scream, which earned me a slap across the face. He thrust over and over again. He thrust deeper and faster. I sobbed and tried not to scream again.

"Say my name!" Charlie yelled at me.

"Charlie." I sobbed, which got me another slap.

"Call me Dad!" he shouted.

"Dad!" I gasped. I was in horrible pain, both my face and down below.

I nearly spewed as he released into me. He started shaking from his orgasm and eventually fell limp beside me. I lay frozen there and, when I heard him snoring a few minutes later, I felt it was safe to creep out of the bed. I crawled out around his arm which was sprawled out over me.

I gathered up clothes from my closet. They were all old and disgusting, but what else did I have to wear? Alice used to lend me clothes but I have a crap figure and refused to wear anything tight or revealing. Alice didn't get it and nearly gave herself a seizure when I wouldn't wear her Gucci mini skirt.

I raced to the bathroom, locked the door and jumped into the shower. I turned on the hot water and let it run over my body even though it was too hot and was burning my skin. I felt so dirty.

I let my thoughts wonder and for the first time since last night, I let my mind flow freely to Alice. I started sobbing and when I had calmed down, I realised I was lying on the shower floor. I regained my composure and after shampooing and conditioning my hair, I got out of the shower.

My skin was red from the intense heat. I dried off and got dressed.

I left the house in a hurry. I didn't know where I was going to go. I just wanted to get away from the house with all the horrible memories before Charlie woke up. I sprinted as fast as I could, trying to put as much distance between the house and myself as possible.

The sky was just starting to lighten so I guessed it was about six o'clock.

It wasn't even twenty four hours ago that _she_ had died.

I peered around, and in the early morning light, I realised my surroundings. I was outside the park where Alice had died.

As I let myself think the name freely for the first time since last night, I totally broke down. My breath came in gasps and tears flowed down my face a million miles per hour.

I resumed my sprint. I didn't want to be in this place. I had to get away. I had to escape this mind, this body. I didn't want to feel anymore.

I kept running and running 'til I reached the edge of town and still I kept running while I continued to sob.

I fell to the hard ground a couple of times, typical, clumsy me but I just got back up and ran again without stopping. I didn't notice the pain in my legs and arms.

My dad was right. Nobody loved me. I was fat and clumsy and stupid. No-one would ever want someone like me.

I raised my head. A car was approaching, coming in the opposite direction from me. It was a silver Volvo but I didn't let my mind process who was driving it.


	5. Dealing With Grief

**Sorry people, I know it's been a while since I updated but I've been really busy with school and music comps etc. I hope this next chapter makes up for it.**

**I wish I owned Twilight but sadly I do not. I might be brilliant but I'm not that brilliant. Just joking=P**

**Dealing with Grief**

EPOV

"Edward?" The door creaked open slowly and my mom tip-toed in cautiously as if I would blow up like a grenade at the slightest touch. I tried to ignore the pain losing my little sister had caused me and sat up straight.

"Yeah?" I asked. I tried to keep my voice steady but it broke, letting loose all the horrible images I was trying not to think about; Images of Alice's frail little body lying in an abandoned alleyway, or in a parking lot or even in the middle of Wal-Mart.

We had got back from the local cop shop a few hours ago and I'd been cooped up in my room ever since. No matter how much I tried, sleep was prevented by all the disturbing thoughts going through my head.

"Nothing," she said shyly. "I just wanted to check if you were still up. You should get some sleep. It's been a really, really long day." I could still hear the hysterical sobs in her voice. She knew none of us would get any sleep tonight.

She left the room silent as a mouse and once I heard her and my dad's room door close, I got up off my bed, put my sneakers on and grabbed my jacket and my keys from my desk.

I didn't exactly know where I was going to go, I just needed to go somewhere, anywhere away from here. I needed to escape the confinement of this huge house that held all the happy and sad memories that my family had had together.

I closed the door behind me with barely a creak and crept down the hallway and then the stairs. I unlocked the front door and locked it again behind me. I opened the huge double-garage door quietly enough that I would not be heard, though it did normally make a lot of noise.

My shiny, silver Volvo was right where I'd left it, on the right hand side of the garage next to my dad's Mercedes. Emmett's huge, monstrous jeep was too big to fit into the garage and sat outside the front of the house.

I slid the key into the ignition and the smooth engine purred to life with barely a sound. I reversed out of the garage and drove down the driveway, manoeuvring around Emmett's jeep. I stepped on the gas the minute I was out on the open road.

This was what I always did when I needed to get something off my mind or stressed. Just get in my car and drive until I've calmed down or I run out of gas. I watched the needle on the speedometer rise steadily upwards. I was now racing about seventy miles per hour in a 40mph zone.

I chuckled dryly and humourlessly to myself thinking about what would happen if the cops caught me driving at this speed. Probably ask my name, find out I was Carlisle Cullen, the most popular doctor in Forks son and let me go again without even a warning. The novelty of special treatment wore off after a while. What did a kid have to do around here to get punished?

After driving for about 2 hours, I finally stopped at a gas station to fill up. The sky was starting to get lighter now and the weak Forks sun was beginning to shine.

I sighed heavily. I knew I had to go back home now before Esme got up. She's my mom and I love her and I don't want to cause her any more pain than Alice's death had already caused her.

I paid for my fuel and got back in my Volvo. My parents had got me this car for my last birthday, my seventeenth. I remember how happy I had been and how Alice had been even more jumpy and over excited than usual.

And then of course, I paid for thinking about the happy memories by another stab to the heart.

I was about two miles outside of the crappy town that I live in when I noticed a person sprinting in the opposite direction. It didn't look like an ordinary runner. This person was falling down way too much for that. And every time she fell she just got up and ran again.

I didn't feel amused like I normally would have done if this were a normal person. My intuition told me there was more to it.

As I got closer, the girl got clearer. I recognised her instantly but what the fuck would Bella be running for? I was pretty sure she had been named World's Clumsiest Person since she learned to walk. And she had probably set a world record for how many times a person can fall over in a minute.

I stared at her and then as if she could feel my eyes on her she looked up. And instantly tripped.

Something was wrong this time 'cause she couldn't get up again.

I pulled up on the curb a few feet away from her and noticed that her body was uncontrollably racking with sobs.

When I saw her lying there, so frail and broken, all thoughts of Alice left my mind. All I could think or feel was that I wanted to comfort her. I needed to comfort her. I had found my distraction.

I hopped out of my car, not bothering to turn it off.

I knelt beside the scared child and called her name.

She didn't retaliate, though I knew she'd heard me. She just lay there, with her head in her hands, hiding her face from me.

"Bella!" I called again this time removing her hands from her face so she could face me. Her unfocused eyes eventually found me and for a moment I lost myself in them. They were deep brown, the colour of chocolate. In that moment I was almost overcome by the urge to close the distance between us. But we were both upset. She had just lost her best friend, I my sister. It didn't seem right to kiss her now.

I hugged her into my chest as she continued to shake. I watched her carefully to see what damage she had done to herself. Being the son of a doctor, I had to have some experience.

I couldn't find anything that looked particularly bad but I decided I should take her to my dad and get her checked out just to be sure.

I heard her small squeak of surprise as I easily lifted her into my strong arms, but she didn't fight against me. I lay her down across the back seats of my Volvo and strapped her in awkwardly.

She was still sobbing and muttering incomprehensible words under her breath when I walked round the driver's side and got in. We drove in silence apart from Bella's cries. I understood how she felt. I was feeling the same loss as she was. But it was probably worse for her. Bella and Alice had been so close.

"I know, I know Bella," I whispered. I wasn't surprised that my voice was still cracking with grief. I didn't think she'd heard me but an abrupt halt in her tears told me she heard perfectly.

"Does it ever stop hurting, Edward?" she asked me sadly. I didn't know if she felt like she could relate to me at that minute or if she just had to get these things off her chest and I was just there.

"It feels like it never will," I replied honestly. "But I suppose with time it will get easier."

She didn't reply or say anything else and neither of us spoke for the rest of the journey.

When we reached my place, I left the car out front and didn't bother putting it in the garage. My dad's Mercedes was gone which meant he was drowning his sorrows in work and that I had not managed to avoid making my mom worried sick.

Never mind. I'd have to apologise for that later.


End file.
